Technology
Groundwork runs on the open-source libraries and OGC standards listed on this page.
Built on the FOSS4G stack
OpenLayers
Rendering, interaction and projection handling all run on OpenLayers, the open-source map engine.
WFS and WFS-T
Full transactional editing (Insert, Update, Delete) against QGIS Server and other WFS-T servers, over GML and Filter Encoding.
QGIS project files
Layers, symbology, field aliases and display fields load straight from a .qgs project, with no separate config format.
GeoStyler
GeoStyler converts OGC SLD and QGIS QML styles into one common style model.
proj4
Groundwork reads each source's coordinate reference system and reprojects it automatically, using proj4.
GeoJSON
Static sources load as GeoJSON, and any layer can be exported back out as GeoJSON.
STAC
Groundwork's internal catalogue model. Every source a map connects to is normalised onto STAC, and external catalogues connect directly to it. A file dropped onto the map is read as it stands.
Vector basemaps
OpenFreeMap for the street map, rendered with ol-mapbox-style, and Bing Maps for aerial imagery.
Built on Portolan Spec v0.1.0
Groundwork uses Portolan, an open standard for cloud-native geospatial catalogues, as its own catalogue standard.
Portolan is a strict profile of STAC for catalogues published as plain files on object storage, with fixed formats, roles and metadata so any conforming reader can open any conforming catalogue.
Role-based assets
Groundwork reads data, visual and style assets by role, which is Portolan's own addressing.
Registry media types
GeoParquet, PMTiles and COG are each published under Portolan's registered media type.
Cloud-native formats
Portolan's three required formats all load: Groundwork reads GeoParquet and lists its features, and draws PMTiles and COG straight as map layers.
rel: "child" crawling
A published catalogue often splits every collection into its own document. Groundwork walks those links breadth-first to load it whole.
Bbox hygiene
WGS84 bboxes are reprojected and held to the spec's own range, down to a single-point extent where south equals north.
Tracked against source
Portolan is pre-1.0 and moves fast. Groundwork's compliance rules cite the spec's own files, and are re-checked on every version bump.
Read more
See the Administrator Guide to connect a WFS server or QGIS project.